United States Department of Transportation
ITS Joint Program Office
Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA)
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590

13. Type of Report and Period Covered

14. Sponsoring Agency Code

15. Supplementary Notes

Mr. Ken Jacoby, COTM

16. Abstract

This document presents the findings of a study undertaken to investigate issues surrounding worker and motorist safety in the vicinity of toll collection facilities. The study was undertaken in direct response to Section 1403 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) legislation, and was focused on accomplishing two main objectives: (1) to study the safety of highway toll collection facilities for workers and motorists through data, and through interviews and observations; and (2) to identify recommendations for improving toll facility safety – in the form of safety strategies for consideration by toll agencies. The study involved a review of existing literature, a survey of toll operators, site visits to 7 agencies, interviews with 21 agencies, a workshop with representatives from 20 agencies, and an analysis of available worker injury and motorist crash data. Together these activities provided a better understanding of the safety of toll collection facilities and allowed for identification of a wide range of strategies that toll agencies can consider implementing when looking to improve safety at their toll plazas. The study team obtained records on workplace injuries from 15 agencies (approximately 2,600 records) and records on crashes from 7 agencies (over 10,000 records). However, the data was not broad enough nor consistent enough from one agency to the next to allow significant industry-wide conclusions to be drawn. As a result, a key recommendation of this study is that standardized reporting procedures be implemented across the country whereby tolling agencies would document accidents and injuries occurring in the vicinity of toll plazas in a consistent and comparable manner. The report also recommends that a centralized database be created and maintained to store and organize this data in a searchable format. Based on the accident and injury data collected and the agency interviews conducted, the study did not find evidence to suggest that toll collector fatalities are a frequent occurrence at toll plazas.